For the Swiss NGO ICT4Peace, our volunteers obtained data characterizing thousands of cyber security companies around the globe.
ICT4Peace was tasked by the Swiss government to do a mapping on the use of ICTs in security services provided by commercial actors. For that, the NGO needed a comprehensive list of companies active in the field.
After exploring and evaluating possible solutions involving classical web-scraping and natural language processing, our project team decided to pragmatically use Linkedin as the data source.
We accessed Linkedin’s database via the Linkedin API and searched for the keywords provided by ICT4Peace. In the end, we retrieved over 40 variables — including name, address, url, description, similar companies, etc. — for more than 11’000 companies worldwide.
The companies we identified as being active in the field of cyber security stem from various sectors:
Our results confirm ICT4Peace’s initial finding that cyber security services are provided on a large scale, with important consequences for existing regulatory regimes and human rights.
With the selected approach, we achieved the project goals in the required time and to the satisfaction of the customer:
The cooperation was excellent, and the DataCross / CorrelAid Switzerland team came up with a very pragmatic and affordable (re. cost-free) approach to our request. We are very happy with the results, which will be included in the upcoming publication of: From Boots on the Ground to Bytes in Cyberspace: Mapping Study on the use of ICTs in private security services by commercial actors (Fall 2022). - Anne-Marie Buzatu, Vice President & COO ICT4Peace
Since 2004, the ICT4Peace Foundation (ict4peace.org) has championed the strategic, sustainable and meaningful use of ICTs for crisis management, disaster risk reduction and peacebuilding. ICT4Peace’s purpose is to save lives and protect human dignity through Information and Communication Technology. Since 2003 ICT4Peace explores and champions the use of ICTs and new media for peaceful purposes, including for peacebuilding, crisis management and humanitarian operations.